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Clare Snyder Clare Snyder is offline
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Default Getting a damaged screw out

On 30 Mar 2019 17:35:19 GMT, Tim+ wrote:

Dave W wrote:
On Sat, 30 Mar 2019 08:48:55 +1100, "Jac Brown"
wrote:



"Tekkie®" wrote in message
...
Jac Brown posted for all of us...



Got one of these
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0mcpg949t9..._2208.JPG?dl=0
with a badly damaged philips screw head which I can't get out of here.
https://youtu.be/XlYNf101RJ0?tV

The thing is entirely plastic in two parts. I don't care about wrecking
the
whole screw and what it goes into because I am happy to replace it.

I'd normally just grab the head with some mole grips etc but
cant get the screw unscrewed enough to get a grip on the head,
No easy access to cut a slot in the head and use a flat screw driver.
Guess it might be feasible with a dremel with a cutting disk. I have
both.

My initial thought was a screw extractor/easy out but the don't really
go small enough. The threaded part is only 5.5mm thick. The smallest
screw extractor is listed as 3mm which might well work with a hole
drilled into where the philips slots used to be.

The other possibility is to glue a plastic rod to the head but I don't
have a rod of the same plastic and there is no obvious way to work
out what the plastic is to order a rod of the same plastic and glue.
Is one particular type of plastic normally used on those things ?

I guess superglue and metal rod might work.

Any other alternative I might be having a brain fart about before
I order the smallest screw extractor ?

Not urgent, there is some problem with the windscreen washer
bottle that means it holds very little water but its fine to do
without a washer for a month or two while the extractor arrives.

Jam a small screwdriver or pick under the screw head while turning the
screw

That wont work, its recessed.

or do a reacharound and clip it off with a dyke.

That doesn't work either, again because its recessed.

Drilling it out should work when I charge up one the
cordless drills. The mains powered drills are all too long
with the car on the jack. I don't have access to a hoist.


As someone else said, it's not a screw.


Then why is it threaded and have a crosshead on it??

It’s a fecking screw. You can get fasteners with a smooth sided pin that
you push in to expand the legs but this one clearly has a plastic screw to
wind in to expand them.

Can’t you see the threads?


The whole thing was inserted
into the hole, then the top part pushed down to expand the bottom bits
bigger than the hole they went through.


Not this one.

If you try to turn the 'screw' it will just keep rotating without
allowing the bottom bits to contract.


Why would a pin have a crosshead to turn it to no effect?

Tim

Take it from a mechanic who has installed and removed HUNDREDS of
them. It is a "scrivet". Not a screw. The threads (and "screw head")
are there to, theoretically, anyways, make it easier to remove them.
They are NOT screwed in - they are PUSHED in. If someone tried to
tightrn one with a screwdriver the threads are LIKELY damaged and no
amount of counterclockwize turning will remove them. You need to
either PULL the "screw" portion out or get the head off and push it
through. They are considered to be "consumeables" - ior "single use
fasteners". Yes - you CAN re-use them - they will just be more
aggravating to get out the second time.Sometimes you get lucky and
they will actually unthread - but consider THAT a BONUS.

The "down and dirty" method of removal is to drive a sharp drywall
screw into the head and yank the "pin" or "screw" or whatever you want
to call it out with a pliers (or if you have thick skin on your
fingers, by hand)